Wikipedia's first sentence called it “most important ancient cemetery in israel and palestine”. Today it says “remains of a rock-cut cemetery assumed to have been used by the highest-ranking officials residing in jerusalem”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2015 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2015
Silwan , a First Temple period tomb.1The Silwan necropolis is the most important ancient cemetery in Israel and Palestine, and is assumed to have been used by the highest-ranking officials residing in Jerusalem .2 Its tombs were cut between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE. It is situated on the rocky eastern slope of the Kidron Valley , facing the oldest part of Jerusalem . The Arab village of Silwan was later built atop the necropolis.3Although the existence of ancient tombs in the village of Silwan had been known since the 19th century, the first careful survey was not performed until 1968. Charles Warren , who was thwarted in his efforts to carry out a full survey of the tombs, in some of which villagers were living, attributed this to "the hostile nature of the villagers" whom he described as "a lawless set." All of the tombs were long since emptied and their contents removed.4
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 665470648.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Remnants of the Monolith of Silwan , a First Temple period tomb. The Silwan necropolis is the most important ancient cemetery in Israel, and is assumed to have been used by the highest-ranking officials residing in Jerusalem . Its tombs were cut between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE. It is situated on the rocky eastern slope of the Kidron Valley , facing the oldest part of Jerusalem . Part of the Palestinian village of Silwan was later built atop the necropolis. Although the existence of ancient tombs in the village of Silwan had been known since the 19th century, the first careful survey was not performed until 1968. Charles Warren , who was thwarted in his efforts to carry out a full survey of the tombs, in some of which villagers were living, attributed this to "the hostile nature of the villagers" whom he described as "a lawless set." All of the tombs were long since emptied and their contents removed.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 927372907.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Ancient Israelite cemetery in Jerusalem Remnants of the Monolith of Silwan , a First Temple period tomb.The Silwan necropolis is the remains of a rock-cut cemetery assumed to have been used by the highest-ranking officials residing in Jerusalem . Its tombs were cut between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE. It is situated on the rocky eastern slope of the Kidron Valley , facing the oldest part of Jerusalem . Part of the Palestinian village of Silwan was later built atop the necropolis.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1175273007.
The opening as it stood in 2025 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Ancient Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem The Silwan necropolis is the remains of a rock-cut cemetery assumed to have been used by the highest-ranking officials residing in Jerusalem . Its tombs were cut between the 9th and 7th centuries BC. It is situated on the rocky eastern slope of the Kidron Valley , facing the oldest part of Jerusalem . Part of the predominantly Palestinian district of Silwan was later built atop the necropolis.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1276909380. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “most important ancient cemetery in israel and palestine”. Today it says “remains of a rock-cut cemetery assumed to have been used by the highest-ranking officials residing in jerusalem”. Read the current article and compare.
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2015, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
most important ancient cemetery in israel and palestine
Now
remains of a rock-cut cemetery assumed to have been used by the highest-ranking officials residing in jerusalem
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
